Cocoon' Is 50th Film For Gentleman Star

It was Don Ameche's birthday. At 77, he could still blow out all the candles.

He can do a lot more. In the movie "Cocoon," he does flips off of a diving board and breakdances.

When "Cocoon" director Ron Howard asked Ameche if he thought he could breakdance, he told him, " 'Yeah, probably I can.' And they got instructors for me. I rehearsed and wound up doing it," Ameche said.

Ameche said he didn't injure himself doing the difficult gymnastic-like breakdancing. He conceded a double was used for some of the moves. Ameche said he much prefered the slow dance sequences filmed in a ballroom where he danced with Gwen Verdon, who plays his girlfriend in the movie.

"That nightclub - what you saw on the screen is exactly the way it is every night that it's open. The people there, you couldn't believe

Ameche is certainly an authority on proper dress. His gray hair, mustache and conservative gray suit, blue shirt and stripped tie add up to his immaculate image. He's witty, charming, debonaire and ever the gentleman. But there's a trace of mischievousness in his brown eyes which smile as he talks.

Ameche was one of Hollywood's leading men, starring in "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell," "The Three Musketeers," "Midnight," "Ramona" and "That Night in Rio," among many others. "Cocoon" is his 50th motion picture.

But Ameche went 12 years before being handed the script for the Dan Aykroyd-Eddie Murphy comedy hit, "Trading Places." Then, it was another 1 1/ 2 years before "Cocoon."

In today's youth market, there just aren't that many movie roles for elderly actors. But Ameche doesn't consider himself an old person.

"I have never been an old person. It's not that I try to be young. I know how old I am. And I know what I can do and what I can't do. But strangely enough, there's damn few things that I can't do that I have done before. As a matter of fact, there's nothing - other than that I can't do as much."

Ameche says he enjoys life, especially a bottle of good wine with his dinner. "I love good wine. That's all I drink anymore.

"I read. I stay abreast of all the things that are happening around the world - or I try to."

"Cocoon" has been lauded by some senior citizen groups for its generally positive depiction of the elderly.

"I hope that older people do feel that way about what I've done, and that it will give them an incentive to go out and do a lot more things than they're doing right now," he said.

Ameche discussed his own theory concerning longevity.

"There are three areas in the world where they have the greatest percentage of people over 100 years old. One is in Brazil and two are in Russia. There, the 125-year-old - and they have a lot of them - is still the head of the entire family.

"He is consulted by everyone. He's as alive in the mind of that seven- year-old boy as he is in the mind of his 98-year-old son. The deference to them is in place, as it has always been. Undoubtedly, I happen to feel that this is a contributor to the longevity to these people."

Ameche mentioned a pet peeve: Social Security.

"I hate to see Social Security in place. I'd rather it be like Japan - the young have to take care of the old. This is what I feel is kind of missing in society . . . I don't know what you'd do without it . . . What have you done to the old people with all this?"

When it was mentioned that Social Security was intended as supplemental income for the elderly, Ameche said, "I'm well aware of it. But it's not that anymore."

Reminiscing about motion-picture making in Hollywood's heydays, Ameche said, "Ernst Lubitsch was the only great director I had when I was in what I call the prime of my life in motion pictures."

"The first day of shooting on 'Heaven Can Wait," he called the entire cast in and his statement was, in effect, 'Sam Rafaelson and myself polished this script for eight months and I beg you not to change a word.'

"It was the easiest picture I ever made in my life. Before I went to bed, I memorized my lines and I never, ever thought what I would do with this character in the scene. All I wanted to do was give him what he wanted."

Rafaelson, Ameche pointed out, had stated in a New Yorker magazine interview, that he and Lubitsch considered "Heaven Can Wait" their greatest picture.

Ameche was born Dominic Felix Amici in Kenosha, Wisc. He attended the University of Wisconsin to studytoward a law degree, but a friend got him interested in drama. Ameche's distinctive voice made him a natural for radio. He regularly appeared with Edgar Bergan, W.C. Fields, and on "The Chase and Sanborn Hour" and "The Bickersons."

Ameche has appeared opposite many of the great women of the screen, including Betty Grable, Rosalind Russell, Myrna Loy, Dorothy Lamour, Gene Tierney, Claudette Colbert and Loretta Young.

"She is a fine artist," Ameche said of Colbert. "She and Loretta Young knew more about the technical end of the motion picture industry than anybody I came in contact with. They knew more about lighting than the lighting people."